BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
18 Feb 2008
related tags: Internet & Web | Video | Startups | Financing |

Alley Insider echoes what I’ve been saying about the numbing (and dumbing) number of “stream yourself to the Web ” services out there.

They argue that this segment has taken the baton from YouTube clones with regards to where the bubble has moved in online video. But, they skip one segment, which is video ad networks.

Anyway, at last count, there are 14 ways to stream yourself to the Web, but to advertisers that is 14 too many.

That’s right: herd mentality galore. From SAI:

Will any of them pan out? Probably: If there’s an audience for the Numa Numa Dance, then anything’s possible. But if you think YouTube or MySpace have a hard time selling ads, imagine the challenges monetizing Stickam’s crude video, or the exploits of JustinTV’s Justin, who doesn’t really have any exploits to speak of.

Yet Yahoo thinks enough of the possibilities that it launched its own streaming service, Yahoo Live, this month. So how do the live streamers stack up? We’ve rank them based on the odds they’ll survive long enough to be acquired.

See the breakdown.

I don’t want to say this, because who knows if we have the strategy right (that being that advertisers want premium video content, and not UGC), but this is just lunacy and insanity. Streaming yourself to the Web is just part of the Bubble watch, the other is in UGC-How to Videos… Here’s an email I just got:

I’m from a brand new how-to website called *. I think your videos are great! - and I think they’d do well on *.

(…) It’s an awesome concept, so if you’re interested check us out. I can answer any questions you may have.

Hmm… too bad there are about 14 of those, too. Online video advertising is going to be an enormous chunk of total advertising revenue, and you almost can bet that most of these companies are going to miss that bull’s eye by a mile.